LG Chem Announced By GM As The 2015 Supplier Of The Year

General Motors recognized 110 of its best global suppliers with a 2015 GM Supplier of the Year award during a ceremony held at Cobo Center.

LG Chem – lithium-ion battery supplier for Chevrolet Spark EV, Chevrolet Volt, Cadillac ELR and for the upcoming Chevrolet Bolt EV (more on that later) – was recognized by General Motors as one of the 110 best global suppliers from 17 countries.

Automotive suppliers from 17 countries received GM’s coveted Supplier of the Year award for going above and beyond GM’s requirements, designed to provide customers with the most innovative technologies that benefit customers and the industry’s highest quality vehicles.

GM’s 2015 recognition represents a nearly 40 percent increase in the number of suppliers recognized compared to 79 recipients in 2014. More than half of the suppliers are repeat winners from 2014.

“Our priorities are focused on building positive supplier relationships, bringing new, customer-centric innovations to GM, and being the OEM of choice among suppliers. The companies we recognize tonight not only have brought innovation, they delivered it with the quality our customers deserve.”

Delphi – provided industry-first vehicle-to-vehicle wireless communication technology to provide 360-degree object detection, which can see beyond the line of sight and around large obstructions. GM will be the first to market with this technology available on the 2017 Cadillac CTS.

Delta Electronics – supplied an on-board charger module in the 2016 Chevrolet Volt that converts AC power into DC power with the purpose of recharging the battery pack of an electric car.

Gentex – introduced industry-first rear camera mirror on the 2016 Cadillac CT6 that eliminates C-pillar obstacles and increases field of vision up to 300 percent.

GM also honored three companies – LGE/LG Chem., Brake Parts Incorporated, and repeat winner Lear – with its Overdrive Award. The honor, first debuted in 2012, recognizes supply partners for extraordinary leadership in cultural change and commitment initiatives that drove exceptional business results for GM.

The Supplier of the Year, Overdrive and Innovation award winners are chosen by a global team of GM purchasing, engineering, quality, manufacturing, and logistics executives. Winners were selected based on performance criteria in Product Purchasing, Indirect Purchasing, Customer Care and Aftersales, and Logistics.

It would really be interesting, to know how much GM design the motor really is. Is it a pure GM design, or a cooperation under GMs lead, or just a LG motor with a GM Logo for bragging rights?
I guess they might have gained some experience by building the Volt and Spark electric motors, but the inverter is a LG design, so there had to be some information exchange, while designing those two components.

There isn’t much new in e-motor designs so it doesn’t matter as much as the choice of motor type and QC.
I’d go with Tesla’s no REE choice with more start up torque.
And shouldn’t it be called the LG Bolt?
I wouldn’t be surprised to see LG in the EV business with their own before long.

Tesla doesn’t use REE material, but their motor isn’t as energy efficient as REE a motor. There are benefits to both designs and it depends on the tradeoffs. If efficiency is your target than REE make sense. If absolute performance is the target induction motors make sense.

If anything, that list of suppliers shows you how expansive the auto industry is. So when people make comments like “Just let GM go bankrupt”, you can see how many other companies it would affect. There was a reason Ford also lobbied for a GM bailout. If their suppliers got wiped out, it would have been a huge snowball effect to many other suppliers as well; Tier1 , Tier2, etc.

People keep making comments like this, the reality is cars have and have always had many suppliers. GM has sold ICE cars with Honda engines, but you wouldn’t call that car a Honda. For 99.999% of the buying public they will never know LG built any part of this car. They will take it to their GM dealer for service, repairs, updates. Why not call the Tesla Model S the Tesla Model S feat. Alcoa since that where the aluminum comes from?

Could GM build all the parts (sans battery cell) themselves – sure, but to what end. EV’s are not rocket science and the real barrier is cost (battery) and range (battery). All the EV components are a race to the bottom, so why would you want to be in that business. Tesla is taking a huge risk with the Gigafactory that even they are questioning the need “right now”. Profitability on battery cells are going to be pennies on the dollar and if you’re not producing a large number of cells will be a loss center.